"Ghost, this is Reaper, respond."

Ethan blinked, then tapped the com on his vest. "Reaper, this is Ghost, I read you."

Ara straightened and push the hair away from her face.

"Griff, we're outside your position, on the ground level, below the hill," Colonel Patterson replied. "What the hell have you found here?"

"A relic," Ethan replied. He shifted, trying to get to his feet, but found he'd gone quite stiff and his legs were numb and tingling. "We lost contact with your unit and came looking."

"Commander Ellis explained what happened," Patterson replied. "Now how do we get you out of there?"

It took some effort, and a helping hand from Ara, but Ethan finally got to his feet. "We fell through the bridge deck, the flooring isn't stable," he said. "And we aren't alone in here, Colonel. I had to kill one creature coming up from below decks. I'm not sure how many might be using this place as a home."

"We're on it," Patterson replied. "I'm sending a team in through an opening below, looks like a cave entrance leading into a supply bay. We can work up if you think you can work down. I don't want to risk coming in from above if that hilltop is unstable."

"Yes, sir." Ethan was walking around a little, shaking out the tingling in his feet as the blood started flowing through his legs properly again. "We'll get to the access ladder and try working our way down."

"Use caution, Major," Patterson added. "I need you in one piece."

"That's my intention, sir." He turned to Ara and handed the headgear to her again. "You should use this. I can see fine with the light, and I go first down the ladder."

She nodded, then helped him shoulder the door open again. "Can we explore more of this place from below?"

"Probably," Ethan said as he flicked on the rifle's light and stepped into the corridor. "I'd still really like to find some details about this ship. Maybe we can download the logs with Sentinel's equipment."

They started back down the hallway, moving carefully in case the floor began to weaken, until they reached the access tube. Ethan took a long look down, then had Ara do the same with her night vision.

"I do not see anything," she said.

Ethan use the small scanner to check for movement, then nodded. "Okay, it's clear for now." He reached out and grabbed the nearest rung, then adjusted his rifle so that it was at the ready and aimed down. It made descending a slow and clumsy trek, but he could fire the instant something appeared in his light.

He started down, glancing up only once to see that Ara had found purchase on the ladder and was just above him. As he approached the level below, he aimed the scanner at the opening, checking for movement. When he found none, he continued on to the next level.

They continued that way another five levels, slowing down at each floor to check for motion before moving down passed it. The air was thick and stale, and dust filled his nose and lungs with each new handhold.

On the seventh level, Ethan paused to wipe sweat from his forehead and looked up at Ara. "Are you doing okay?"

She nodded down at him. "It is unpleasant here, but I am fine."

He laughed shortly and pulled out the scanner to test the next opening. "Unpleasant is an understatement." There was no motion detected, so he started down.

Just as he passed the opening, a bone-chilling shriek filled the air. The sound was immediately followed by weapons fire, rapid and close by.

Ethan brought his rifle up, but the sounds weren't on their level. "Reaper, this is Ghost, what's happening?"

"We found one of your hairy friends," Colonel Patterson replied. "Those things go down hard."

The shrieking finally stopped, and the access tunnel was again silent.

"You can come on down, Ghost, we're just below you and it's all clear."

"Roger that." Ethan looked up at Ara, who'd heard the exchange via the headset she was wearing. "Let's go."

He hurried down the last rungs more quickly, landing on the eighth floor where several rifle lights were piercing the darkness. Ara jumped from the ladder easily, landing next to him, but the flashlights bounced off her night vision, completely blocking her view.

She pulled off the headset. "I cannot see now."

"It's the lights," Ethan took the set and clipped it to his belt, then gave her the hand light. "Can you see well enough with this?"

Ara nodded.

"Griff, don't trip over our friend here."

Ethan aimed his light at the massive black body in the center of the corridor, between them and Colonel Patterson.

"Damn, that's big," Flash whistled.

Cautiously, Ethan and Ara approached the dead beast. It had fallen mid-leap, with both long arms extended toward Colonel Patterson's group. The hind legs were as thick as stumps, and covered in black fur like the rest of the massive body. Ethan ran his light over the back of the creature, then settled on its head.

"We found a skeleton above, probably dead for decades. Check those fangs." He aimed his light toward the mouth, but he couldn't get a good look from behind. The wide body occupied most of the corridor, but Ara found she could shuffled by on the far right, so Ethan followed her.

"Something like this could rip a man apart without even trying," Colonel Patterson said. "Are there more?"

"I killed one earlier," Ethan replied, pointing back toward the ladder. "It fell down the access shaft, and I haven't seen the body so it must have gone all the way."

Colonel Patterson was kneeling down by the head, poking at it with the tip of his rifle. "This thing ate three shots. Direct hits, each one." He shook his head, then stood and looked at Ethan. "What ship is this?"

"I have no idea, sir," Ethan replied. "I've been trying to find a designation, or any kind of data, but so far I've come up empty. There is still battery power, though. It's weak, but might be enough to download the logs."

Patterson nodded. "There's time for that," he said. "You men, sweep these corridors, ever level, and make sure no more of these things are hiding out here."

"The top two floors are pretty crumbly," Ethan cautioned. I fell through a deck after coming through the top."

Colonel Patterson laughed shortly, then shot Ethan a quick grin. "You heard Ghost," he said. "Walk softly, but keep your big sticks close." He turned to Ethan and nodded back the way he'd come. "I need to show you something."

"Yes, sir." Ethan shuffled passed the dead beast and followed the colonel down the long, dark corridor. "Was there radio interference, Colonel? We couldn't raise you from the city, or the mobile, and once we got out here we couldn't raise Captain Marshall again. I assumed it was this ship, blocking the transmission, but there's not enough power left here to do that."

"No, it wasn't this ship," Patterson replied as they walked. "But it was artificial interference." He reached for a door and pushed against the rusting metal, opening the darkened corridor to the bright sunlight. "And it was from a ship."

Ethan was blinded by the sunlight as a breeze of fresh air wafted over his face. "Another ship?" He squinted, trying to bring the bright world into focus. They were on top of a slope, where dirt and rock had piled up against the artificial hill, looking down at the Sentinel and a group of people.

"Specifically, Fleet Ship One," Colonel Patterson replied.

Ethan blinked, staring at Colonel Patterson for a full minute before turning to really look at the group gathered at the bottom of the slope. There was a woman there, dark brunette hair touching her shoulders as it moved in the breeze. She was wearing the white uniform of a scientist and smiling at him as she brought both her hands up to her mouth to shout.

"Greetings from Earth, Ethan Griff."

"Go on, greet your sister," Patterson laughed as he slapped Ethan on the shoulder.

Too stunned to realize he'd just rushed down a slope covered in loose rock and thick sand that could have tripped up even a careful hiker, Ethan rushed to his sister, embracing her as she rushed forward to meet him.

He was surprised his knees didn't buckled. "You're here?"

"I am," she said, smiling.

Ethan shook his head as he stared at her. "You're really here? But how? When?" He looked up at Colonel Patterson, who was smiling at them both. "What happened? How did they -- when did you land?" He looked at Kathryn, then remembered Ara standing beside him. "Ara, this is my sister, Kathryn Griff."

Ara's eyes lit up. "Greetings from Earth, Kathryn Griff. It is good you have come here."

"Hello," Kathryn had to twist a little to get out of her brother's grasp, then offered a hand to Ara. "Your people have been very kind to us, Ara."

"It is good that family come together," she replied, touching Kathryn's palm with her fingertips. "But I do not understand. How is it you are here, and not in the sky?"

Ethan blinked, then swallowed and tried to get himself back in the now, at least long enough to organize his thoughts. "Your ship was supposed to be another three weeks out."

"Seems nothing went according to plan after we launched," Colonel Patterson replied. "It's a long story, Griff. Why don't you get cleaned up and let your sister fill you in?"

Kathryn turned around and took her brother's arm, then pulled him toward Sentinel and the other mobile unit he and Captain Marshall had ridden out on. "Come get cleaned up, you're filthy."

"What the hell happened?" He demanded as he let his sister lead him to their makeshift camp. "Is that your ship out there, the black cloud on the horizon?"

"What's left of it, yeah," she replied. "Colonel Patterson told us what happened to the Solaria. There's so much more you don't know, Ethan. I can't even believe we made it here."

They stopped next to some basins of water where towels were set out, alongside kegs of restorative liquids and stacks of emergency rations.

A man approached as Ethan was unclipping his rifle, and held out a hand.

"Major Griff, it's good to finally meet you."

"Ethan, this is Todd," Kathryn said. "Doctor Todd Knott. He's the head of my department, what's left of it, anyway."

Ethan raised an eyebrow, but shook the man's hand out of habit. "Doctor Knott."

"Call me Todd, please," he replied with a smile. "I've been working with your sister so long, I feel I already know you."

Ethan tried not to snort at the commonly used line as he unfastened his vest. Ara was already washing the grime and dust from her face and hands, so he joined her to keep from saying something he'd be made to regret by an angry twin.

After cleaning off the worst of the sweat, dirt and shock, he grabbed a towel and looked at his sister. "Okay, so what happened?"

"It's all a little muddled," she said. "We had to launch sooner than planned, which is why we're here before you were expecting us."

"We weren't expecting you here," Ethan countered. "This isn't 581c." He looked from Kathryn to Doctor Knott, Colonel Patterson and back again. "Our ship failed to make the final jump, then took it upon itself to land on this world instead."

"Ours did the same thing, more or less," Todd replied.

"What happened to the ship?" Ethan asked.

"It exploded," Patterson replied for them.

Ethan looked at Kathryn. "Exploded?"

She nodded. "Three days ago. That's when we landed." she took a breath. "Our ship didn't make the last jump, either, but the computers woke us all up while we were still in space. Only something went wrong --"

"I'm more than convinced this was all sabotage now," Colonel Patterson grunted.

"Probably," Kathryn agreed. "Our pods were forced open in emergency mode and . . . Well, not everyone survived that." She looked at Todd, who looked at his hands and shook his head slowly. "We lost a little over four hundred because of that."

"God," Ethan breathed.

"So then they found this planet -- the ship's command crew -- and realized it was our only chance, but the onboard computers were ruined or something, I'm not exactly sure," she said. "All I know is we barely made it here, landed relatively smoothly, then the captain ordered an immediate evacuation."

"We'd barely gotten the survivors out and some equipment when there was an explosion," Todd said. "The officers were still on board, but the fire, it was too much."

"Started in the satellite launch bay," Kathryn said. "By the time the smoke cleared and we were able to gather our wits, we managed to count just under two thousand survivors." She looked at Ara. "And then some of your people found us, along with Colonel Patterson."

"It's exactly what happened to the Solaria," Patterson said. "I was just lucky to have been out here, exploring the light side, when I saw the smoke. That's what was preventing the radios from working, scattered radiation from the fleet ship. Not enough to cause harm, but it destroys any chances of communication." E

than glanced around. He could only count about thirty people there. "Where are the others?"

"I sent them on to the city," Patterson replied. "I sent Pyro ahead to let you know, but Ellis told me what happened."

Ethan nodded, then pulled the dog tags from his vest and handed them to his commander. "There wasn't enough left for a proper burial."

The colonel nodded, stuffing the tags into his own vest pocket.

"Okay, so why did Fleet Ship One launch so early? I still don't understand why you're here so far ahead of schedule."

Kathryn glanced at Todd as she spoke. "It was ELM."

"They got into the system," Todd said. "Somehow they managed to destroy Fleet Ship Six on the launch pad, in London, and the entire section erupted in panic."

"ELM?"

"I suspected they were involved when the Solaria came down," Colonel Patterson agreed.

"They infiltrated the command center," Kathryn said. "And got the codes into the ship systems. When Fleet Ship Six was destroyed, suddenly we had four thousand people without a way off Earth. There was panic, and riots started up everywhere. They attacked Fleet Ship Eight to force their way on board, but every fleet ship there was had a full contingent already. Every single cryochamber was spoken for, everywhere." She shook her head. "The rioting grew, and then Fleet Ship Ten began to malfunction during the test phase for the cryosleep system, and the panic grew from there."

Todd sighed. "Our ship was ordered to launch immediately, for fear it would be targeted. They already suspected ELM had hacked into the systems of all the ships, but we had no choice. It was either launch and pray for the best, or stay on Earth. And we know that wasn't an option any longer."

"What about the other ships?" Ethan asked. "Did they launch? Has there been any sign of them?"

Kathryn shook her head. "We don't know."

"I'd bet good money they didn't leave Earth," Colonel Patterson said. "If they did, we'll have no way of knowing when, or where they'll drop out for cooling."

Todd shook his head. "We don't even know if they could make it to this system. If your ship was sabotaged, and our ship was sabotaged. We have no way of knowing if we were supposed to drop out here and die in space, or if our reaching this far out was a fluke." He shrugged. "We're completely blind here."

Ethan shook his head. "Captain Marshall found something you need to know about, Colonel."

Patterson nodded. "The signal? Ellis told me, but in light of this new evidence, I'm not convinced he interpreted the data correctly."

"Sir?"

He waved a hand. "ELM, Major. They've destroyed God knows how many fleet ships, killed thousands, probably tens of thousands, before they could launch. And those ships that did make it off Earth, well who knows where they are."

Ethan shook his head, but lowered his voice. "Colonel, it makes sense in light of this derelict. If these people dropped a satellite out there before landing, and it's broadcasting a thousand year old signal--"

"We'll see what we can come up with," Patterson interrupted. "I want everything from this wreck downloaded and taken back to the city. We'll compare Fleet Ship One's computer records with the Solaria's and see where the sabotage took place."

Ethan took a breath, and was about to pull the colonel aside for a more private discussion when the commanding officer gave his shoulder a good-natured slap that made him wince visibly.

"Are you injured, Griff?" he demanded.

"Just a bruise, sir, nothing more," Ethan replied.

"Get yourself checked out," Patterson ordered. "Doctor Keller is here." He turned and waved to someone in the group a few yards away.

"I'm fine, sir, really."

"Just shut up and do what the colonel orders," Kathryn interjected. "I haven't seen you in, well, twenty years I guess. I think you could spare a minute or two while other people walk around in there."

Colonel Patterson laughed. "Listen to your sister, Griff. Let the doc check you out." He adjusted his vest and looked back at the dirt-covered wreck. "I'm gonna have a look around this thing while the lab people get what they can from the old computers."

Ethan sighed, relenting. "Yes, sir."

"I would like to accompany you, John Patterson," Ara said. "I would see more of this strange ship."

"My pleasure," Colonel Patterson replied with a slight smile. "Griff, try to stay out of trouble for an hour or two."